I checked the article you linked, and of course there are comments along the lines of “you’re being too sensitive.” and “it’s not a big deal.” Bullshit. If he was somehow mocking another racial group, people wouldn’t be saying that. But, of course, it’s “okay” because he is making fun of Asians.

Well, most people know that Toby Keith is white trash anyway. Now, excuse me while I go listen to the Dixie Chicks.

I shouldn’t have to explain why this is offensive to Asians, especially to the readers of this website, but I figure since the mainstream media seems to have taken notice of racism against Asians for once, there might be a lot of new uninformed readers here.

Just yesterday, I was at Walmart, shopping for Christmas, when a kid walking by gave me a suspicious look and, as he walked away, sang what I call the “Chinese Stereotype Melody.” I have no idea where it came from, but Asian Americans probably know what I’m talking about. It goes something like, “da-da-da-da duh duh, duh duh, da” and has been used in countless shows and movies (often accompanied by fake martial arts, a gong sound, bowing, fake Chinese words, and just all around mockery of Chinese people, and, by extension, all Asians). That simple gesture had the effect of reminding me that no matter how hard I work, no matter how highly educated I may be, no matter how much maturity, poise, and dignity I strive to display, no matter how much my family sacrifices, and no matter how much love and patriotism I have for my homeland, the United States of America, where my family has worked and lived and died for three generations, I WILL ALWAYS BE A FOREIGNER, I WILL ALWAYS BE INFERIOR TO SOME DUMBASS FAT KID JUST BECAUSE HE IS WHITE, and I WILL NEVER BE A “REAL AMERICAN” like that pompous asshole Toby Keith. Just because he puts on a cowboy hat and has a white face, he is empowered with all the down-home country goodness and positive connotations that go with that, just because of his appearance, even though he hasn’t earned any respect in my book. Just because my eyelids have medial epicanthal folds, I am seen as a subhuman Ch*naman who deserves nothing more than to work in a sweatshop making Nikes or in a kitchen making shrimp fried rice. Are appearances really everything?

Anyway, even though this melody probably had the original intention of cheap laughs for people who think Orientalizing, exoticizing, and marginalizing people who are perceived to be perpetual foreigners is funny and entertaining and safe because they’ve never had to confront their own racism, it has the effect, over generations, of making millions of people victims of taunting, bullying, concentration camps, anti-immigration laws, colonization, fetishizing, rape, terror, torture, and socioeconomic inequality. We call this racism.

“It’s just a stupid melody,” you might be saying to yourself. “It’s just a stupid gesture.” And you would be right–it is stupid. It’s something that I would have hoped to leave on the playground 20 years ago. But the persistence of mockery of Asians, particularly the extent to which it’s accepted as innocuous, represents a growing trend that racism against Asians is not only acceptable, but doesn’t even exist. It quickly leads into the model minority myth–the myth that Asians are doing so well socioeconomically that they, like whites, don’t experience racism. This is an insidious lie, specifically designed to eliminate opposition to the systematic oppression that is racism.

I won’t detail the ongoing struggle against racism that Asians experience in America and other places where we are minorities. Either you understand it exists, or you need to open your own eyes. I’m not going to do it for you. All I’m giving you, for those who do not understand why these stupid little playground taunts like the eye pulling and the mockery are racist because they contribute directly and inevitably to social injustice, is a chance to realize that racism is a big deal to people who have to struggle against it every day. I’m inviting you to get on board with anti-racism instead of the tired cliché that is racism denial. Act like you know.

I feel you Elton. Part of the problem, and maybe for the MOST part that these kids and people in general go around making fun of Asian people, is because they’re not even taught the great contributions Asians have made to this country. All they know is Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Asian is foreign to them. In school you’re basically taught, “oh yeah and all those Chinese built some of our railroads” along with a picture or two of Chinese in their traditional garb. Then it’s back to what some great White person did in history.

While growing up, mainly due to my name along with my looks, I was always thought of being from somewheredammitelse. Because my name wasn’t Jane Smith I had to be from somewhere else. A lot of guys thought I was “exotic”. I just go off the phone a few minutes ago talking to some so called professional. She starts, “uh uh is maii uhhh I can’t even begin trying to pronounce this name, hehehehehehe” that shit ain’t funny. So I was cold to her and I told her my name veryyyy sloowwwllly while refusing to laugh at myself along with her. I feel if I did that I’d be racist against my own self. She goes on saying, “well what kind of name is that”? Wow people.

That being said, no matter how I’m treated or what I go through, because I’m not their version of “American Pie”, I refuse to let them set the standards for me. No one can take my citizenship away from me, no one can take my American away from me. In many ways, we’re more American than they have ever dared to be.

People in this country are way more racist than they’ll ever acknowledge. While I agree that anti-Asian racism tends to not get the same amount of attention as other kinds of racism, it’s not like black people have it easy now. For example, there are STILL blackface incidents these days that meet similar, “You’re being too sensitive/PC” or “That’s not REAL blackface” comments. It’s a damned disgrace how people won’t at least own up to their own racism.